Where can I get legal help in Hong Kong?

Hong Kong has several free or subsidised places to turn to. The Legal Aid Department can provide legal aid if you pass a means test and a merits test. The Duty Lawyer Service offers representation for many defendants in the Magistrates’ Courts, free one-off legal advice in the evenings at District Offices, and free recorded legal information by phone. The Judiciary’s Resource Centre helps people without a lawyer with court procedure, CLIC explains the law online, and the Labour Department helps settle employment disputes.

The Legal Aid Department provides legal aid in civil and criminal cases. The Department states that any applicant, whether or not a Hong Kong resident, who passes both the means test and the merits test is eligible.

The means test looks at your financial resources: your monthly disposable income multiplied by 12, plus your disposable capital. The upper limit is set by the Department and revised from time to time, so check the current figure on its website.

For civil cases, the merits test asks whether the case has a reasonable chance of success and whether it is reasonable to grant legal aid. The Department lists family and matrimonial disputes, personal injury claims, employment disputes, contractual disputes, immigration matters and professional negligence claims among the civil cases covered. For criminal cases, legal aid is granted when the Director of Legal Aid is satisfied that it is desirable in the interests of justice.

Duty Lawyer Scheme: representation for defendants in the Magistrates’ Courts. It covers most criminal offences where the defendant may be at risk of imprisonment; it does not cover committal proceedings, hawking offences, traffic summonses or certain regulatory summonses. There is no fee for the first hearing. After that, defendants who pass a simple means test pay a fixed handling charge, which can be waived in cases of genuine hardship; those receiving public assistance such as CSSA are normally exempt.

Free Legal Advice Scheme: volunteer lawyers give one-off, preliminary legal advice on weekday evenings at Legal Advice Centres in nine District Offices of the Home Affairs Department. Tel-Law Scheme: free recorded legal information by phone, 24 hours a day, in Cantonese, Putonghua and English, on more than 70 topics. Tel-Law gives a brief introduction to a topic, not advice you should act on.

Run by the Judiciary, the Centre assists people without a lawyer who are parties to, or about to start, civil proceedings in the High Court or the District Court. It gives guidance on filling in court forms and submitting court bundles. It does not cover matrimonial, lands, competition, employees’ compensation or probate matters, and its staff will not give legal advice or comment on the merits of a case.

The Community Legal Information Centre (CLIC) is a bilingual website set up by the Law & Technology Centre of the University of Hong Kong, with funding from the Department of Justice. It explains the law that applies to daily life and points people to free or subsidised legal help. Its information is for preliminary reference only and is not legal advice.

The Labour Relations Division of the Labour Department offers voluntary conciliation to employers and employees in the non-government sector. Either side can go in person to one of its branch offices near the workplace; staff help fill in a claim form and arrange a conciliation meeting. If no settlement is reached, the claim may be referred to the Minor Employment Claims Adjudication Board or the Labour Tribunal, depending on the number of claimants and the amount claimed.

Lawclear is not a law firm and does not give legal advice. You can report your legal issue in plain language; we gather the details and connect you with a verified legal professional. Clients pay Lawclear nothing, and Lawclear takes no share of any legal fee. It does not replace the public services above: if you may qualify for legal aid or a duty lawyer, contact them directly.

Legal Aid Department, Legal Aid Schemes FAQ: https://www.lad.gov.hk/eng/las/faq.html · Legal aid in criminal cases, eligibility: https://www.lad.gov.hk/eng/las/criminal/ec.html

CLIC, Duty Lawyer Scheme (coverage and fees): https://www.clic.org.hk/en/topics/legalAid/freeOrSubsidisedLegalAssistanceInHongKong/dutyLawyerScheme/q1 · Tel-Law Scheme: https://www.clic.org.hk/en/topics/legalAid/freeOrSubsidisedLegalAssistanceInHongKong/tel_lawScheme · Duty Lawyer Service, Free Legal Advice Scheme: http://www.dutylawyer.org.hk/en/free/free.asp

Judiciary, Resource Centre for Unrepresented Litigants: https://rcul.judiciary.hk/rc/eng/servicePro.jsp · CLIC, About CLIC: https://www.clic.org.hk/en/about-clic · Labour Department, Labour Relations Division: https://www.labour.gov.hk/eng/labour/content1.htm

Information checked against the official sources above on 28 September 2026. Rules, limits and fees change: check the official source before you act. This is general legal information, not legal advice.